


caring

by chaehyungwonies



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: M/M, POV Multiple, Yoo Kihyun-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 17:37:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13885770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaehyungwonies/pseuds/chaehyungwonies
Summary: kihyun may or may not want to make hoseok shut up by punching him in the mouth with his own mouth, softly, with a lot of affection and maybe a small i like you against those gentle lips.





	caring

**Author's Note:**

> this came about because of a conversation with oomf on twitter, im currently swimming in kiho hell send help.

“I want Hoseok to shut up sometimes, you know?”

Kihyun stared down at Hyunwoo, who was spread all over the couch staring at his phone with a dead uninterested gaze. Feeling the presence of Kihyun’s dart-like eyes made the man look up at the other vocalist before nodding quietly. “Sure,” he replied, turning back to his phone in no time. 

The other man huffed angrily and sat on the arm of the couch with crossed arms. “Are you even listening to me? None of you six ever listen to me when I want you to,” he whined heavily and groaned. Hyunwoo didn’t move an inch and the irritation in Kihyun started to grow even more. He rolled his eyes and got up to walk off, mumbling under his breath on his way. “Can’t believe I have no one to talk to about how much I want Hoseok to leave me alone before I kiss him to shut up.”

Kihyun was too busy grumbling to himself to neither notice Hyunwoo perking up nor the older man’s short _kiss him?_ at hearing the tail end of Kihyun’s rant.

Distracted by frustration, the vocalist made his way to the studio, somewhere he knew most of the other members would likely not be at the moment and also where he could sing to his hearts delight without irritating the others. To his surprise, though in hindsight not so, Hoseok was working at the midi keyboard, humming to himself some melodies he picked out against the keys. Sensing Kihyun’s presence, he looked up and smiled, the warm gentle curve of the lips that made something in Kihyun’s chest clench. Kihyun hated (read: loved) that smile, hated (read: loved) the way it made him feel so warm inside.

“Since you’re here, can you sing this line for me?” the dancer asked, pulling off his headphones as he reached up to pass them along to Kihyun. “I’m trying to figure out if I have the notes right but my pitch keeps wavering.”

“Okay,” spilled from Kihyun’s lips before he could even stop himself. He inwardly berated his quick acceptance—he could rarely say no to Hoseok in the first place—before taking the headphones and nodding for Hoseok to play whatever he was listening to.

After a few runs through the melody, Kihyun started to hum along and lightly sing it a little more, changing his _oohs_ and _ahhs_ to words once Hoseok passed along baseline lyrics to test out. Kihyun didn’t dare to look at Hoseok as he sang; he knew he would stumble over the words, especially when the lyrics were laced with themes about love and affection. Seeing that bright smile on Hoseok’s lips from Kihyun’s singing would only make his stuttering worse. Hoseok was always so infatuated with Kihyun’s voice, praising him up and down for making Hoseok’s “lousy” songs sound so perfect. Kihyun took the compliments in stride and mostly respectfully laughed them off but it always stuck with him how much Hoseok respected his craft.

“Wow,” muttered the other man when Kihyun finished a long run from the high end of his range to end the song. He dared himself to look at Hoseok as he passed the headphones back and felt something shudder through his body at the awe oozing from Hoseok’s gaze. His brown eyes were sparkling, soft lips slightly parted, plush and red like the faint flush of his cheeks. Kihyun’s breath lodged in his throat and he coughed heavily, taking the time to look away from Hoseok in the process. “You’re really amazing, Kihyun; I hope you know that.”

Kihyun motioned thanks as nonchalantly as possible midst his coughing fit, but it turned into more of a motion for _help me I’m fucking choking right now_ , which made Hoseok panic and rise to his feet in a rush to pat Kihyun’s back. When Kihyun’s coughing fit was over, he turned back to face Hoseok and found a water bottle shoved in his face. “Drink up; your throat sounds wrecked, Ki.”

_Ki_.

Hoseok rarely called Kihyun by any nicknames, in fact Monsta X themselves rarely called Kihyun anything besides his name or Kihyunnie. Kihyun didn’t usually accept many other nicknames from others in the first place anyway, but Hoseok always got away with Ki. Ki made Kihyun feel light inside, in a good way, made him feel oddly affectionate in a manner he wasn’t very familiar with, and it was only Hoseok who dared to let the shortened nickname pass through his lips.

Kihyun nodded silently and took the bottle in hand, drinking with closed eyes as the water soothed his throat from the hectic coughing. He tried not to feel Hoseok’s eyes on him, he tried not to open his eyes and sneak a peek to see if Hoseok liked what he saw, if he liked the way Kihyun’s Adam’s apple bobbed with every gulp. It was only his self-preservation that kept his eyes squeezed tight as if opening them would blind him, and he passed the water bottle back hastily and made no eye contact whatsoever.

He did end up brushing his fingers against Hoseok’s in the exchange though, which made him drop the bottle and shock Hoseok. Water spilled about the floor and Hoseok cried out, grabbing the bottle before more could escape it’s confines. “I’m so sorry,” sputtered Kihyun, quickly grabbing a rag from somewhere about the room to clean up the mess. He noticed scraps of candy wrappers and strewn-about papers on the floor as he knelt down and sighed heavily. “You need to start cleaning up more after yourself, Hoseok. You’ll get sick leaving trash all around your work space.”

Kihyun rolled his eyes and looked up at Hoseok to give him a stern look to make his case more serious but found his gaze softened when Hoseok wasn’t even standing up anymore and was kneeling on the ground picking up the trash. Hoseok was whistling his song under his breath, shaking his head back and forth with the beat as he crawled about. Kihyun sat back for a moment and watched, taking the chance to take in Hoseok’s form without any further speculation from Hoseok himself or the other members.

It was incredible how much Hoseok’s form had changed over the years. He was always bigger than Kihyun, but his recently shoulders were _so_ broad and his arms were thick and stretched out his shirts more often than not let alone the impact his chest had on their performance close. Kihyun raked his eyes over Hoseok as he crawled under the table, down on his elbows with his back arched just enough. Kihyun quickly averted his gaze, coughing into his hand before returning to the spilled water about the floor.

They cleaned together in moderate silence, only the sound of Hoseok’s humming filling the air. It was too loud for Kihyun, Hoseok’s entire presence was incredibly distracting for him and he often found himself staring for a little longer than necessary. He hoped Hoseok couldn’t tell, he didn’t want to have to explain why he kept gazing at the way Hoseok’s biceps flexed when he grasped at something or why he shuddered when Hoseok stood up and his calfs pressed against the soft cloth of his sweats. Definitely didn’t want to explain why his cheeks were splotched with red by watching Hoseok run thick fingers through his brown hair with a heavy but satisfied sigh.

“Thank you,” Hoseok started bubbly, plopping back down in his chair when they finished cleaning up. “You always take care me and make sure I’m doing well.”

Kihyun nodded, dusting off his hands over the trash can. “If I don’t do it, no one else will.”

Hoseok laughed. “I’m sure Hyunwoo would try his best, but I like you most so I’m glad you do.”

It took all of Kihyun’s might not to get flustered at those three words. _I like you_. Hoseok meant it in the most innocent way ever, definitely not in the way Kihyun wanted it, but it still struck the chord of every romantic want Kihyun had for Hoseok. It hurt how much Kihyun wanted more with Hoseok, it hurt how he couldn’t talk about it with anyone, it hurt how Hoseok couldn’t keep his mouth shut and kept saying things that made Kihyun yearn for more.

“Cute,” was all Kihyun dared to let his mouth say before waving goodbye and deciding to spend a long time cooking dinner to distract himself.

* * *

“Hyungwon and I are going out for lunch,” shouted Hyunwoo as he shrugged on his coat and a snapback, black mask covering his chin. Hyungwon was at the door already, checking his phone for some random update, but he caught Hyunwoo’s cheek with a kiss when the elder walked by.

Hyunwoo smiled and took Hyungwon’s hand in his for the walk downstairs, letting go once outside in case anyone was tracking them. Hyungwon kept close though, brushing their shoulders together and giving Hyunwoo warm eye smiles that made the man want to kiss the perky nose he knew was scrunched up cutely from the action.

“Hey,” he began after a moment of silence as they waited for their ordered food at the cafe a few blocks from the dorm, “Has Kihyun ever said some weird things to you?”

“Besides death threats?” replied Hyungwon with a roll of the eyes. “No, he hasn’t. What’s up?”

Hyunwoo looked off to the side with a shrug. “I don’t know, he said something weird to me the other day and it’s been on my mind for a little while now.”

“Was it a secret?”

“Not exactly. Well, at least he didn’t say it was.”

“Then tell me.” Hyungwon’s grin was feral and a large part of Hyunwoo wondered if he should really share the information with his boyfriend. “You know Kihyun won’t tell me if it’s that serious.”

Hyunwoo looked back at Hyungwon with a sigh. “He told me he wants to kiss Hoseok.”

Hyungwon blinked. “That’s it?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought it was gonna be some serious drama like he’s deciding to go solo or take Jooheon with him. Something like that.” the dancer sighed dramatically and leaned his head on the table and looked up at Hyunwoo with a pout, auburn bangs washing over his eyes in the cutest manner. “I love you.”

“What prompts that?”

“The fact that I want to say that I too would love to kiss Hoseok; he’s a very attractive man, I honestly can’t blame Kihyun.” Hyunwoo hit Hyungwon’s shoulder and got a petty whine in response. “I said I love you!”

“You’re a nuisance, you know that, right?”

“But you love me.”  
  
“Sadly.” the elder wheezed out a laugh as Hyungwon shoved him with exaggerated anger. “Okay but you’re really not shocked about Kihyun wanting to kiss Hoseok?”

“Why would I be?” Hyungwon paused as the waitress came by with their meals, thanking her kindly before turning to Hyunwoo with wiggly eyebrows once she was gone. “I kiss my bandmate every day, I do _far_ worse with you than Kihyun wants with Hoseok.” 

Hyunwoo almost spat out his drink. “Don’t talk about that type of stuff in public, you’re gonna give me a heart attack.”

Hyungwon shrugged and sipped at his drink with a smirk, Hyunwoo noting that this was probably very much a meme worthy moment the fans would be dying over. He sighed to himself and leaned in to press a kiss to the shell of Hyungwon’s ear, covering his mouth from view with his hand so it would look like he was telling a secret instead. “I love you, too, by the way. A lot.” he purred, pressing a softer kiss to the back of Hyungwon’s ear. “I’ll show you later, if you’ll let me.”

“I thought you said not to talk about this stuff in public,” gritted Hyungwon through clenched teeth as he held his straw at his lips. He pulled away from the older man and gave him a heated glare in response, Hyunwoo grinning at seeing the effect he had with his words. “Eat your food, we paid good money for this.”

* * *

Hyungwon draped a towel over his shoulder as he stepped out of the bathroom, a different towel wrapped around his waist as he padded forward. Hyunwoo was splayed out asleep on the lower bunkbed, red marks about his body that the makeup crew would probably wish to kill Hyungwon for, but he couldn’t really care at the moment. Slipping on boxers and one of Hyunwoo’s too big t-shirts, the dancer worked his way out the bedroom to the living room, where Minhyuk was situated playing Overwatch.

“I really can’t play that game for my life,” moaned Hyungwon as he plopped onto the couch and reached for the television remote. “You and Changkyun are so good though.”

“Sure,” replied a distracted Minhyuk, growling under his breath as he brushed honey blonde bangs from his face. “You and Hyunwoo have a good time?”

“You bet,” Hyungwon grinned to himself as he flipped through random channels and tried to find a good one to settle on. “Kihyun is still at the studio?’’

“Yeah, working on something with Hoseok.”

Hyungwon rose his eyebrows and nodded with introspection. “Huh. Guess Kihyun stepped up.”

“What?” Minhyuk turned to Hyungwon with furrowed brows, confusion overriding his face. Hyungwon realized his words and looked off to the side, closing his mouth and curling his lips in with silence. “What do you mean Kihyun stepped up.”

“Nothing! He just maybe wants to suck Hoseok’s face off. Not sure if it’s true though. Probably wants to pin him against the wall and shove his tongue down his throat.”

“Hyungwon, stop pressing your fantasies onto Kihyun.”

“I’m _not_!”

Minhyuk rolled his eyes. “We get it; you want to bone all of Monsta X.”

“I already have thanks to your collective minds zoning in on dressing me in girl’s clothing after that interview. That was a good week,” he said lazily with a glazed-over look in his eyes. The lanky red-head shook himself out of the memories and turned back to Minhyuk with a pout. “Besides, I’m _exclusively_ with Hyunwoo so I’m not pressing fantasies, it’s what Hyunwoo told me earlier today.”

“Oh?” the blonde nodded slowly. “Sounds legit then.”

“He didn’t say it as explicitly as I just did but, yes, that’s what he relayed to me.”

* * *

Minhyuk looked up as he heard the door open and smiled to himself as Hoseok walked in, bouncing to the kitchen with excitement. “You didn’t eat all the ramen yet, did you? Kihyun said he made extra just to make sure I would have some when I come back from the studio.”

“We’re not savages; of course you have food.”

The only answer Minhyuk got was a loud yelp of excitement that made him laugh into his hands as Hoseok prepared his late dinner. The brunette was extremely excited with his heated up bowl of ramen in hand as he made his way to the living room table where Minhyuk was seated. “Today’s been such a long day but Kihyun helped me a lot with my new song and even stayed to clean up, too. This is like the fifth time in a row he’s stayed over to help clean. I’d say it’s weird but I like it.” Hoseok slurped at his noodles with a satisfactory sigh and looked over at Minhyuk. “I haven’t seen you almost all day, how are you?”

“I’m fine, I’m much more interested in how your day has been.”

Hoseok paused, chopsticks halfway to his mouth as he turned back to Minhyuk in a slow manner. “Your voice sounds speculative. What’s going on?”

“I could ask the same of you,” Minhyuk’s grin grew more feral as he leaned in to Hoseok, who started to get a panicked look on his face as he pulled his bowl of noodles closer.

“Did you poison my ramen? Are we making a comeback already? Is there a special broadcast I missed from being in the studio all day?” his face started to pale as Minhyuk shook his head at each question. “Minhyuk, you’re scaring me.”

“Kihyun stayed over to help ‘clean’. How was that?”

“Oh,” the brunette put his bowl down with a shake of his head, “you had me scared for a moment.” He stirred at his noodles and frowned. “It wasn’t much at first, just the usual kneeling on the floor. He was so quick to get down, all flustered and everything; I don’t know why he gets so riled up. I mean, it’s not that fun to be on your knees for so long.”

Minhyuk grinned widely, ready to find Kihyun and ask him for more details since Hoseok was being so vague. “Hey, the pay off can be worth it.”

“Yeah? I guess.” Hoseok shrugged and took another bite of his noodles before continuing. “He’s also really touchy, more so than usual at least. It’s weird, but I can’t say I mind.” He paused and frowned for a moment before continuing on. “It wasn’t anything different than usual today, but he was really, uh, I don’t know how to describe it but, tight.”

Minhyuk choked on his tongue. “I don’t need anymore information, that’s not anything about Kihyun that I’m interested in.”

“What?” Hoseok looked extremely confused as he continued eating his ramen. “You asked how cleaning went.”

“Yeah, but I don’t need those details, I just wanted confirmation that Kihyun stepped up and kissed you like he wanted.”

Hoseok wheezed loudly and choked on the ramen he was inhaling, coughing erratically as he tried to calm himself down. “Kihyun wants to _kiss_ me?”

Minhyuk rose a confused eyebrow. “Um, yeah? He said he wants to pin you to a wall and drive his tongue down your— _ohmygod_ ,” the blonde put his head in his hands, “you two were actually legitimately cleaning, weren’t you.”

Hoseok stared at his bowl of noodles as if coming to a mind blowing conclusion that changed his life forever. “Y-yeah,” he stuttered, red consuming his cheeks and making him glow in a pretty way. “I didn’t know Kihyun wants that; wants to kiss me.”

Minhyuk watched Hoseok, watched how his deep blush reached his ears, how he bit his bottom lip in the cutest flustered manner. He was adorable and innocent, flustered in the perfect way. He looked over at Minhyuk with a shy smile and cocked his head, brown bangs falling against his eyes. “He really wants to kiss me?”

“Yeah, he does.” the blonde reached out to pat Hoseok on the shoulder. “So are you gonna go for it or what? Kihyun’s a catch, you know, he won’t pine forever.”

* * *

 Kihyun stopped by the studio every day for the next week but didn’t find Hoseok there at all. He wondered if he was being too uptight the other day, but he couldn’t help it, Hoseok was in a tight fitting t-shirt and baggy sweats and the causal look was making Kihyun feel things he couldn’t allow himself to feel. There was a stark difference between a casual FBW type thing the group individually had with Hyungwon that one week and catching feelings for a member who has never shown any sort of interest in Kihyun over the years. Kihyun wasn’t quite sure how Hyungwon and Hyunwoo managed it before realizing the affections were returned but he didn’t want to entertain the thought so he kept himself as restricted as possible.

It seemed to have the right (read: wrong) affect of pushing Hoseok away, which made life a bit more relaxing (read: more stressful) once he realized Hoseok wasn’t going to be in the studio. Things were going swell with the whole avoidance game until Hoseok ended up in the studio again, probably to prepare a song for the comeback they were recently getting ready for.

Hoseok’s eyes were trained on Kihyun almost as much as Kihyun had his eyes trained on Hoseok the first few times they cleaned up the studio together. It was highly suspicious, especially without Hoseok humming songs under his breath and Kihyun wondered if maybe this is payback for sneaking in all those glances before the avoidance game started.

“Hey,” he started with concern as he climbed to his feet and motioned to Hoseok, who was standing by the desk nervously. “Are you okay? Do you need me to leave because if it’s a bad time and I was interrupting your creative process I can go.”

“No, it’s not that.” Hoseok murmured quietly, rubbing at the back of his neck. “I’m fine I just…”

Kihyun raised an eyebrow. “You’re just what?”

The brunette vocalist didn’t have any time to process the next few moments as Hoseok grabbed his face, pushed him back first into the wall and kissed him with every fiber of his being. Kihyun’s hands went up to Hoseok’s, eyes wide with shock as firm lips urgently pressed against his in a hasty kiss. He could feel the blush rising in his cheeks, could feel his heart catching in his throat but he couldn’t get his brain to make his body move an inch to comply with the kiss.

Hoseok pulled away almost as fast as he approached Kihyun, flustered and stuttering an apology as if he had just ruined the group chemistry by kissing Kihyun. “Oh, fuck; I’m sorry, Hyunwoo told Hyungwon who told Minhyuk who told me that you wanted kiss me so I decided I would just go for it but god, fuck maybe Minhyuk was pulling at my leg; please forget this ever happened if it makes you uncomfortable or awkward I don’t want that; I really like you, Ki and I just want—”

Kihyun’s brain seemed to snap back into action at those three beautiful words. _I like you_. He was finally hearing them in the way he wanted, with romantic intention and affection. It felt so good how much Kihyun wanted more with Hoseok, it felt so good knowing he could talk about it now, it felt so good how Hoseok couldn’t keep his mouth shut and kept saying things that made Kihyun yearn for more because now Kihyun _could_ yearn. He could yearn and get what he wanted, have all the Hoseok kisses he could ever ask for.

“Oh, shut up,” he grumbled too affectionally, pulling Hoseok in by the base of his neck for a deep kiss. Hoseok melted against Kihyun’s lips, bringing his hands to Kihyun’s wrists and holding on tight as if he couldn’t believe this moment was happening.

In a way, Kihyun could barely believe it either, but when he pulled away for air with Hoseok’s husky breath against his face and one of Hoseok’s large warm hands up Kihyun’s shirt against his stomach, he knew this was real.

“Better get to cleaning, huh?”

Kihyun furrowed his brow, still not quite back from his kissing high. “What?”

Hoseok kissed the tip of Kihyun’s nose and pulled away to get to the door, locking the knob before turning back to Kihyun . “Oh, nothing,” he started with a smirk, backing Kihyun back up against the wall before kissing him again, sucking on Kihyun's bottom lip as he pulled away, hands pulling at the bottom of his own shirt to take it off. “Just want you down on your knees is all.”


End file.
